Global spam levels remain high, reaching 96% of all e-mail at its peak during the fourth quarter of last year, according to the 2007 Q4 E-mail Threats Trend Report.
The report, released by Commtouch, is based on the automated analysis of billions of e-mail messages weekly.
The report examines recent trends in e-mail threats, such as the growth and development of zombie botnets that disseminate a range of Internet threats. These include spam, malware, phishing and distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks.
"The Storm Worm botnet caused numerous outbreaks throughout the quarter, including several new spam formats and blended-threat e-mails," says Amir Lev, president and CTO of Commtouch.
Throughout Q4 the Storm Worm botnet was responsible for numerous outbreaks, including MP3 spam, in which an audio stock pump-and-dump message was distributed as an .mp3 e-mail attachment, he says. "During outbreak peaks, MP3 spam accounted for 7% to 10% of all global spam."
Lev states that like all botnets, Storm is made up of a massive global network of PCs infected with malware that gives the botmaster remote control.
"Though end-users are not likely to notice they have been infected, the botmaster can use the hijacked computing power to generate and send spam and malware, host malicious Web sites, and even perform DDOS attacks. Traditional anti-spam, anti-virus and IP blocking technologies are unable to keep pace with the dynamic activation and deactivation of the endless number of dynamic IPs.
"Botnets were the culprits in all types of malicious activity during 2007," says Lev. "Zombies and, in particular, the Storm botnet, are so cunning about hiding their control channels, the only effective way to protect against them is to dynamically detect and block malicious zombie IP addresses."
More details, including samples of spam and blended-threat e-mail containing malware and links to malicious Web sites, are available in the Commtouch 2007 Q4 Email Threats Trend Report, available from Commtouch.com.
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